New Boat, New Water, New Skills

Last Sunday we crossed another set of firsts: we sailed our new club boat out of Burnham Harbor in Chicago.

Read about our new club membership here: We did something…. This is new.

Weekend before last, we spent a night on the boat and practiced docking just inside the harbor. But this time, we took her out of the harbor. When we cleared the breakwater next to McCormick Place, we sailed into the Illinois section of Lake Michigan for the first time.

We had a great day learning the details of the boat, and sailed on a pleasant broad reach to the north and east, offshore from the glittering skyline. What an amazing way to view the unique architecture of this great city.

The sailing was easy…too easy it seems, because when we spun around to head back to the harbor, we realized that the wind had picked up considerably. I pointed her as close to the wind as she would let me and we began tacking our way home.

We were heeling quite a bit as I tried to hold the tightest line I could, and when gusts poked above 20 knots, we reefed both the roller furling main and the jib. Even with about half of each sail deployed, we were moving along at up to 8 knots. Although we made slow headway, I fought pretty substantial weather helm.

Weather helm is a tendency for the boat to want to turn upwind, toward “weather.” I know what it is, but I admit I hadn’t paid too much attention to its cause. In this case, it was more than a modest inconvenience, it was taking a lot of effort to hold my line.

As we neared the harbor, other boat traffic picked up considerably. We decided it was time for the added maneuverability of motoring, so I turned windward to douse the sails. It was at that point we had our first ever broach – a momentary severe heel and loss of steerage.

It was over almost before we knew it but still it was discomfiting! In hindsight (and post-googling), what I now know is that the weather helm was the result of our sails being too biased toward the main. The wind pushed harder aft of the mast than forward, and that was the force I was fighting with the rudder.

When I turned windward–actually when the rudder came closer to center–the wind laid the boat over and snapped us around. For a second I had no control as the forces overwhelmed my rudder input.

Luckily, this is for the most part a self correcting problem. The dramatic heel, while startling, was quickly corrected by the tons of weight in the keel. And the boat pointed herself right into the wind, slowing us nearly to a stop in seconds.  We furled both sails and gracefully puttered into our slip.

Do we call this success or failure? For me, I know we were well within the capabilities of the boat, if not of the skipper. We were in “danger” really only from the sudden movement in the cockpit and from the laughing looks of nearby boats. But I count this as the kind of wisdom that can only be earned through lived experience. We finished dry and in one piece, and one more checkbox completed on our life list.

~ Kent